Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Election Season Hoopla

Well, the election season in full swing. I follow politics like some people follow sports –keeping score and so forth –and for much the same reason. No, this isn’t a post just about the election. I do have a point. I’ll get to it in a minute. For the record, any comments to this post trying to convince me to vote for one candidate or another will be deleted. No exceptions. Now, to go on. Both parties are in a fury right now since they’ve had two separate winners and no clear leader. Personally, I’m an independent who has always voted democratic. But I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if she was the last person in the world who wanted to job. I don’t like her, and I don’t want to continue a dynasty that has been going on since three years before my birth. By that I mean that the Bushes and Clintons have been in office as VP or President since 1980. Sure I want to see a woman President, but not her. And that crying fit on tv the other day? That was completely, utterly staged. My vote, for what its worth, will depend on who’s ahead the day of my state’s primary. If Obama is winning, I’ll vote for Edwards (assuming he’s still in the race). The reason is that I think he’s the only candidate in the race who might be the least bit inclined to take the corporations out behind the woodshed like they deserve. Otherwise I’ll be voting for Obama. If Hillary is the nominee in November, I will either cast a protest vote for a third party if any make it onto the ballot here, or I might (gasp) vote for the Republican. No; I don’t like the Republicans. I despise them, in fact. But in some ways I prefer an honest bastard to a lying one. Therein lies the rub. And the point I’m slowly trying to get to. There’s not really much of a difference between our political parties. Sure, the rhetoric is different, and the Democrats are slightly more liberal. But once they get into office, they serve the interests of the elite and the big business interests. Period. The main difference is that the Republicans are more honest about it, and the Democrats do slightly more pandering to the masses. Don’t believe me? Clinton increased the military budget many fold, cut taxes to the rich and social services to the poor, waged two minor wars, signed NAFTA, and the list goes on. Nor am I picking on Clinton; Carter and JFK were just as bad. Every U.S. President, regardless of party affiliation, has been this way. For a full treatment of the subject, pick up a copy of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. It’s an excellent book, and should be required reading. Voting itself doesn’t matter much, especially anymore. I’m convinced the last two Presidential elections were rigged. I’ve seen all the evidence of vote rigging and its two clear to ignore. I suspect we’ll end up with a Democratic President this time (and probably Hillary) as a way of placating the masses a bit, but I very much doubt it will be because of what the people want. The system is concerned with two things: serving the interests of the elite, and its own stability. To that end, the system will try to get the leader that will do the best job of both. No, this is not a conspiracy theory; this is simple system dynamics –you don’t need a conspiracy to run a system. Right now the system is trending more and more towards instability. People are losing their jobs, their homes, their healthcare in record numbers. Inflation is running wild, oil is through the roof, the weather has gone crazy. And people are beginning to notice. If things get much worse, there are likely to be large scale rebellions as there have been many times in the past –the 60s and 70s, the early 30s, the late 1800s, etc. To head this off, the system will probably bring in a new leader who will make some cosmetic appearances to give the appearance of change without changing the underlying structure. Hell, we may even get Obama as a result of that. This is the old pattern, that has been repeated ad nauseum throughout this country’s history: channel rebellion and discontent into the ballot box, elect someone who will make just enough changes to appease enough people to avoid full-scale rebellion –and leave the business interests alone. You can’t change this system from within. It is too big, too corrupt, too self-correcting. Any attempt at change from within will be dampened out before it does too much damage. No, this system will only change from without and maybe not until it comes down. There are only three ways for that to happen: it will either have to break down on its own, or it will have to be brought down. Or some combination thereof. I don’t recommend trying to actively bring this system down. It treats rebels harshly. But there are simple ways of helping it break down and one is very, very simple: leave it. Walk away. And that will be the subject of my next post.

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

I have recently read a précis of a report by serious economic analysts, the sort of report where it costs you about $300 for you to know what they know level of serious. They say (my words) that the Fed is trying to treat an open heart wound with sticky plaster and the other main national banks of the world have had a look at the wound and are walking away shaking their heads. The Fed has not yet come through its final crisis and is now in its death throes. The rest of the worlds banks have their hands in their pockets and are standing around kicking stones. So, if this is the case for real, then what is it that the Clintons know about the future that we don’t know that makes them want to continue? You would have thought the smart money would be on them buying a neighbourly ranch in Paraguay. I am intrigued, I hope you are too. Btw, I have obviously never voted in your country but I have heard it said that if you don’t know who to vote for when you are in the polls, you can write the name of the guy who is up for dog catcher in for president. What a turn up that would be. Congrats, you got the dog catchers job but you are going to have to choose because everybody voted you president as well. Ho ho.

I just found your blog yesterday and I read through your archives. I am *very* impressed with all that you have accomplished. There were so many questions I had when I read yesterday, but I can't remember any of them except: what happened at the planning meeting you went to regarding property next to you? How was your jam, and did you make any more? It seems you've done all you've done mostly on your own, is that right?

I'm looking forward to checking in with you again and following you on your journey.

Jacran,Thanks for your interest. I thought I had posted about that meeting. It was really horrible, and the planning commission here is the most corrupt grop of people I've ever seen. But there was a good ending -the owner of the land decided to sell 154 of the 400 acres (including the land right next to my house) to a local land trust. So I saved my forest.

I haven't made any more strawberry jam yet because a) I made enough to last me for a year and b) it's not strawberry season again yet. I can't wait until spring. That was the most delicious jam I've ever had!

I've been doing most things on my own, but I've had the help of a lot of books and people online.

About Me

I'm a 25 year-old gardener and would-be small scale organic farmer from Alabama. I am also a fantasy writer and am a pagan. I tend to focus on my own projects and things that are going on in the world, as well as issues of sustainability and the future.